The present invention relates to elevators, and in particular, to energy losses during elevator runs.
Typical elevator systems include an elevator car attached to a counterweight by roping. A hoist motor and a brake act together to move the elevator car and counterweight up and down an elevator shaft. An elevator drive and controller provide energy to and control operation of the elevator system. Naturally, energy is needed to operate the hoist motor, the brake, and the rest of the elevator system. Some of the energy used performs useful work while other energy used is simply lost during operation, mostly as heat. In regenerative elevator systems, the hoist motor can periodically act in a regenerative mode to recuperate some of the energy used.
Some systems attempt to reduce the amount of energy used during operation. For example, some elevator controllers dispatch different elevator cars to different floors in an intelligent way to avoid redundant trips and reduce energy used by the overall system. Even when cars are dispatched intelligently, however, energy losses still occur in each elevator run. Some elevator systems attempt to operate with energy efficient motion parameters, but these systems do not tailor the motion parameters to reduce energy losses for a specific system performing a specific run. Consequently, undesirable and preventable energy losses continue to occur.